Boulder Aish Kodesh

As we approach the end of winter, as the sap begins to rise within us, as the first timid shoots of spring peak their curious little noses out of the earth; as good old robin red breast twittles his song, we inevitably read the Torah readings that concern the vessels of the mishkan and the clothing of the priests who would serve in the Temple. At this moment, a question bubbles up within us, a question that feels deeper than any one or another detail of our lives, that will impact us and those around us in an indelible fashion: what, exactly, should I dress up as for Purim?

Being that Purim is the moment of zany emergence from the relative cold of winter, it is actually an essential question, one parallel in importance to that other age-old question asked around this time: will the groundhog see its shadow and hide out for a while, or will he emerge and kick off spring for us?

It actually takes a lot of guts to dress up on Purim as a way to emerge. The challenge extended to all of us is: dress up as who you really are. And the usually response is to go into the closet, take out that ratty pair of corduroys and flannel shirt you’ve been wearing all winter, and to wear it again. But is this who you are? Maybe it is who you have been until this moment, but is it who you are? Purim is the chance to emphasize a new aspect of who you are. So dress up as that.

The parsha tells us that Moshe is to dress Aharon in clothes that are ‘l’kavod u’l’tif’aret’ – for glory and splendor. The Malbim writes that these clothes are not just physical garments, but represent refined midot – character, which is the garment of the soul. The soul is inherently the kavod – the glory of Hashem, writes Malbim, and it is our job to provide appropriate garments for the glory of G-d that is within us. Tiferet, though, is not the inherent glory of our souls, but a reflection of our ability to increase kavod of Hashem by our own abilities.

It is important to notice that the priests were not necessarily completely refined before they put on the clothes. They could also become refined by putting on the clothes. So, too, as Purim comes, in terms of dressing up as ‘who we are’, there is space to become who we really are by putting on new clothes. So we should dress toward we could be, and all ourselves to fill our own costumes through the transformative power of the holy day of Purim.